Dark Before Dawn
by RooftopsAndInvitations
Summary: Sequal to Trial By Fire.
1. Chapter 1

Whoever said that being pregnant was great, the miracle of life thing and all that stuff was seriously disturbed. I mean, the fact that I was growing a child inside of me was pretty neat, but as I sat on the couch in a house that belonged to a women who I had only met thirty minutes ago, I wasn't feeling like I was part of some miracle. I felt fat and I was certain that my stomach was growing drastically every second.

Dean and Sam were both holding a bottle of beer while I was stuck drinking tea, I wasn't exactly a drinker, but for some reason, knowing that I wasn't allowed to drink made me really want a martini, or five.

"Is your tea okay, sweetheart?" the woman named Missouri Mosley, who Dean and Sam had just introduced me too a couple of minutes ago, said.

I nodded my head, and for some reason I felt the strong urge to cry. This was the result of being three months pregnant and having enough hormones racing through my veins to emotionally scar a herd of elephants.

But instead of bursting into tears like I desperately wanted to, I just nodded my head and took another sip of my tea out of the dainty china cup,

"It's great. Thanks."

She patted my leg; giving me one of those knowing smiles that creeped the hell out of me, and turned to look at Dean,

"So Dean, how do you like the married life?" she asked

He shrugged,

"I haven't been able to get rid of her yet. But I'm working on it."

Sam visibly flinched, he knew first hand how easily my hormones could get the better of me, he once asked if I remembered onions on his hamburger and I ended up crying for an hour straight. Dean had come back from talking to a lady about a hunt we were - well I wasn't really doing much hunting due to the pregnancy thing – working on, and asked if Sam had hit me or something. I would have laughed if I wasn't in such distress, Sam would never, ever, lay a hand on me,

"Dean!" I said, "I'm growing your child here, and your jokes are _so_ not funny."

Missouri pretended that she hadn't heard our mini argument – well to be honest it was mostly me being angry – and just kept on talking,

"So what brings you three to town?"

"Because one of the best obstetricians is near here and Sam and Dean wanted me to meet you as well."

She smiled at me,

"Well I'm glad you did come to meet me. I like you, although what you're doing with Dean is beyond me."

"Hey!" Dean said indignantly, "I'm a great husband."

Sam snorted,

"Oh yea, you're a superb husband, especially when you're making fun of your pregnant wife.

I raised my hand,

"I second the Dean's a jerk motion."

"You're supposed to be on my side." He said,

I responded in the most mature way possible, by sticking out my tongue and then grinning wickedly.

Missouri just sat beside me on the couch, smiling and enjoying the conversation – well more bickering – unfold as we tossed insults and ended up laughing.

The thing is. No matter how much the three of us argued I knew that we would be able to pull it together, and that made my hormone imbalanced self chill out, just a little bit.

We talked for a while about nothing in particular until Missouri asked,

"So Kaiden, do you know the gender?"

"Of the baby?" I asked stupidly and she nodded her head, "Oh, no, we don't know yet, I want it to be a surprise. I've been reading these books though and they say that the mother usually has a good idea of the sex before the child is born."

She gave me a smile that told me she knew more than she was letting on, I couldn't help myself from asking another question,  
"Why do you ask? Do you know something I don't?"

I eyed her suspiciously, for some reason I was kind of disappointed that she knew something about the little baby growing inside of me that I wasn't privy to,

She laughed and shook her head,

"I don't want to spoil the fun for you and Dean, but you are sure in for a surprise."

Dean mentioned something about how we had to get going but I barely heard him, I stood up from when I was sitting on the couch and turned to Missouri, who was also now on her feet,

"No disrespect ma'am, but I'm not really a fan of surprises and especially not when it comes to my baby."

She waved me off,

"Don't call me ma'am, Missouri will do just fine. There's no need for you to worry, it's not a bad thing, it's just a surprise."

I nodded my head and we walked out the front door of her house and down the front path to the Impala that was sitting curbside, its black paint gleaming in the sunlight.

"You do realize that she is the first person that has known you two since you were little that I've met." I said as I slid into the front seat of the car.

Dean shrugged,

"There aren't a lot of people from our childhood still around."

I nodded my head and pulled one of my books on pregnancy out of the glove compartment and started reading from where I had previously left off. My hands slid instinctively around the smooth bump at the bottom of my belly. My jeans and shirts that I usually wore snugly had begun to be tight to the point that I had to go up two pant sizes. I had no interest in wearing maternity clothes so my plan was to continue buying larger sizes until I was forced into the hell that was stretchy waisted pants.

I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the back of the car seat. I had been reading in my book that during the third month of pregnancy that you would have very low levels of energy and irritability could be an issue. I was noticing the first one in an alarming quantity, all day I was either wishing to be asleep, or actually sleeping.

I had been doing my very best lately to hear the details of the hunt Sam and Dean were involved in but they seemed to be saving all hunt conversations for when I was sleeping, which made eavesdropping considerably more difficult. As I lay there with my head against the seat for a very long period of time, Sam – thinking I was asleep – began talking,

"So you're not even going to tell her about the hunt?"

I heard Dean shift beside me,

"You're not. Yea, this is going to turn out well, she _loves_ it when you hide things from her. This sounds like one healthy marriage."

I felt Dean's jacket slide past my arm and then heard his fist connect with Sam,

"Ow!" Sam said, "The hell was that for?"

"I'm not hiding things from her," Dean said indignantly, "I'm protecting her."

"The girl with the shotgun in her bag needs you to protect her? Interesting."

"Sammy." Dean said in an irritated voice, "How about you make a commitment to that Karen girl or whatever, then tie the knot, and tell me if you'd throw your wife into the way of possible danger and almost certain emotional distress. And after she is already emotionally distressed and sobbing because hormones are taking over her body, _then_ you can give me suggestions on what I should be doing right now. Okay?"

Dean was quiet for a moment before he spoke again, "Now. Do you want to talk about this hunt or not?"

"Yea, sure. And her name's Keira by the way."

"Karen, Keira, whatever. Now do you have the details of what happened?"

_Yes, _I thought to myself, _I am finally going to start getting the inside scoop again,_

"I've been talking to a bunch of locals on the phone and over email and there's one story that they all seem to tell me about. There was this woman during the fifties, and she was raped one night and ended up pregnant, her family totally abandoned her and she essentially ran away to a cabin in the forest. So a year later she has the baby and is visited by the rapist. He ended up killing her and the baby. So story is that every year on the night of her attack, she kills three men. Stabs 'em to death, just like the guy did to her."

"Okay," Dean said, "but why three men?"

"Maybe because the baby was three months old at the time?" Sam replied

"Yea. Makes sense. So we exorcise her spirit before she offs anymore guys. But-"

I stretched my arms, pretending that I had just woken up from a nice and restful nap and Dean stopped mid sentence,

"Where are we?" I asked

Dean reached over and pulled my hand into his,

"About twenty minutes from Dr. Brockmann. You can sleep for a little longer if you want."

I shook my head,

"No, that's okay. I want to get some more reading done before we get there. I really don't want to seem uninformed."

Dean chuckled as I opened my book again,

"Sam you don't think I'm ridiculous for wanting to know what's growing inside of me, do you?"

"No Kaiden. I don't think that's ridiculous. I think that you like knowing things, which is understandable."

I smiled,  
"I like you Sam. Maybe you and I should have gotten married, and Dean should have sat in the back seat of the car with no leg room."

Twenty minutes later we arrived at the obstetrician's and Dean and I walked up the stairs to her second floor practice.

We sat in the waiting room, surrounded by women whose stomachs were massive and were complaining about how swollen their ankles were. I leaned over to Dean and whispered in his ear,

"How are you going to feel when I'm double my regular size and constantly wishing for things like ice-cream and trying to remember the last time I could see my feet?"

He laughed softly and slid his arm around my shoulder,

"You'll still be beautiful, no matter what."

"You," I said with a snort, "are the most sickeningly charming person I have ever met. If our baby has even half the charisma that you do, then she'll be set for life."

"Think it's a girl do you?" he asked

I was about to answer when a lady in pink scrubs came into the waiting room with a clip board,

"Kaiden Trent-Winchester?"

"Here." I said, as I stood up and followed her down the hall, with Dean beside me.

She led us into a small room and said,

"Doctor Brockman will be in here momentarily, you can just take a seat."

She handed me a hospital gown to change into and I sat down on the edge of examination bed and watched the nurse leave the room and close the door behind her,

"Trent-Winchester seems a little long," I said to Dean, when he didn't reply I continued on, "I mean, maybe I could combine the two names and have something good and short. Maybe something like, 'Trentchester,' what do you think?"

He laughed,  
"We'll try to think of something else."

I changed into the gown and mock glared at Dean as he swept his eyes appreciatively over my less then clothed state,

"Oh, you're a creeper."

"What?" he said indignantly, "Am I not allowed looking at my wife, who happens to be really hot?"

I laughed and asked him to help me tie up the back of my gown before sitting down on the examination table and waited.

The doctor came in and began talking me through all the things I should be doing and experiencing at this stage in my pregnancy. She talked to Dean about what he should expect from me both emotionally and physically.

"Do you have any questions?" she asked me, and I shook my head so she said, "We'll just do an ultrasound and see how the baby's doing. We won't be able to know the baby's sex yet, but we just want to check up."

I nodded my head, I was so excited and nervous at the same time that I could barely put words together in my head, let alone put them into a verbal form.

"This is going to be cold," Dr. Brockmann said as she squirted some jelly onto my stomach and my attention was rapt to the screen where I could see an outline,  
"It's so small." I said, my voice barely a whisper

The doctor furrowed her brow,

"What is it?" Dean and I asked at the same time,

"Congratulations," she said with a smile, "you're carrying twins."


	2. Chapter 2

We drove back to our motel room in almost complete silence. Dean and I were quiet, but Sam wanted to know what the news was. Neither of us answered. We stopped at a gas station, Dean hopped out to fill up the tank and Sam spoke up,  
"So what did the doctor say that's got Dean so freaked out?" he asked me.  
I turned around in my seat to get a good look at him,  
"I'm having twins."

"Wow!" he said, his mouth breaking into a huge smile, "Kaiden, that's amazing!"

He pulled me into a hug which was awkward due to the car seat between us, but it was nice all the same.  
"Yea, well," I said, "Your brother's being an ass."

Sam laughed,  
"He may be my brother, but he's your husband, your responsibility."

I crossed my arms, "That wasn't in the wedding vows, the whole 'love and cherish' was, but nothing about 'no dumping him on his brother once he gets irritating'."

Sam laced his fingers behind his head and leaned back on the seat,

"Yes well the world is a cruel and confusing place. Dean's just freaking out, as he always does, give him a little time."

I rolled my eyes,

"Or I could pick a fight with him and then verbally abuse him until he comes around."

"There's always that." Sam said with a laugh, "You've taken this wife thing on with a vengeance."

"It's not like Dean didn't know all about me before we tied the knot. He can live with my quirks."

Sam was about to say something when Dean slid back in behind the wheel of the car and started it up. The only conversation during the rest of the ride was small talk. We fell silent for a little while before Dean spoke up,

"Kaiden and I are going to get our own room tonight." He said out of nowhere

To which I eloquently replied, "Huh?"

"We didn't get a honeymoon and we didn't really do anything, so tonight we're going to get our own room."

I nodded my head, not really knowing what to say,

"Uh, ok."

We arrived at the motel and Dean got the keys to both motel rooms and chucked Sam's key at him,

"See you tomorrow Sammy."

He said as he grabbed my duffle bag and walked towards our room.

I was a little confused to say the least, not very long before he had been off in his own little world have a mental freak out.

Dean swung the door open to our room and tossed our bags by the biggest bed I had ever seen. I sat down on the edge of the mattress and looked at Dean with serious eyes,  
"Dean, we need to talk."  
"Uh oh." He said, "This doesn't sound good."

I sighed,

"I know you were, well, a little shocked when the doctor told us about the babies. And I'm sorry this is so hard on you."

His mouth was pretty much hanging open,

"You feel bad, because I was being completely selfish? Well this is a new one."

I shook my head,  
"I just know you've never really wanted kids and this pregnancy was as much of a shock to you as it was to me…"

"I was being an bastard." He said simply, "You're having my kid - well kids, since its plural - that can't be easy. I'm learning as we go, but I'll have my jerk moments because I pretty much have no clue and-"

"And that's your defense mechanism because you're terrified?"

"Well, that wasn't exactly what I was going to say…"

I rolled my eyes,  
"So are you doing this late honeymoon thing because you're trying to suck up to me?"

He nodded,

"There's a definite possibility of that."

I shrugged and laid back on the bed, if he was trying to get back in my good books, I intended to make it difficult. And then I intended to blame it on my hormones. Was that so wrong? Ok, so it's wrong, it sure wasn't going to stop me.

_We have such a healthy relationship_, I thought sarcastically thought to myself

"What?" Dean asked

I hadn't realized that I said that last comment out loud,  
"Er, nothing. So what are the big plans for tonight?"

"Well it originally was to have some champagne and then do something cheesy and romantic. But due to the fact that you can't drink, I have no clue what we're going to be doing."

"I have a really wonderful idea as to what we should do." I said with a smirk

Dean's face broke out into a smile, he was pretty much certain that he knew what I was talking about, which made proving him wrong very enjoyable,  
What's that?" he asked

"You should tell me _all_ about this hunt you and Sam are investigating. And then we can go to a bar, I'll order an apple juice and you can have a nice cold beer."

"How about we skip the argument over the hunt, and we just go the bar?"

I stood up from where I had been laying on the bed and walked towards him until I was only inches from him. Not exactly nose to nose due to our large height difference, but as close as I could without breaking out a footstool.

"I'm only going to let this go for tonight, but first thing tomorrow you can count on me bringing up this conversation. And if you won't answer me then, I will be asking and harassing you until you tell me everything. Got it?"

"Are you threatening me?" he asked incredulously

"Why yes Winchester, yes I am."

He stared at me with his mouth open for a couple of moments before I turned and walked to the door,  
"I'm going to get Sammy."

I suppose I could have been nicer about the way I went about getting information. But Dean was so smooth he could con a con man, no problem, so if I played the game that is our relationship like an amateur, he'd walk all over me.

As we walked to the door of the bar I heard Dean grumble from behind me,

"I can't believe my little brother is coming along on my honeymoon."

I rolled my eyes,  
"Oh yes, Dean, this is truly a romantic honeymoon." I turned to Sam, "You better leave Sam, its getting a little inappropriate, what with me drinking fruit juice and all."

"That's not what I meant." He said.

We walked into the building and I grabbed us a booth as the Winchesters got the drinks. There was a fairly large crowed at the bar so I wasn't surprised that it was taking the guys a while to return. After I had been sitting in the booth for about five minutes, a guy that clearly thought he was God's gift to women walked up to me and slid in on the other side of the booth,

"Hey" he said with a smile that reminded me quite a bit of Dean. Except, my husband was slightly less sleazy.

"Hello." I said in a voice that in no way invited a conversation.

"So I haven't seen you around here before."

"You know what?" I asked

"What?"

"I have heard that line _so_ many times that its way past old. It's just insulting, so, either get creative and make me laugh, or cut to the chase."

He flashed me those pearly whites again in a very irritating sort of way and leaned across the table,  
"How about you come home with me?"

I pulled one of the napkins on the table towards me, grabbed a pen and began writing on the napkin. I slid it towards him,

"'No thanks, not interested.'" He read out loud, "Come on babe, you know you want me. It's all over your face. You come home with me and I'll take real good care of you."

_Is this guy ever going to give up?_ I asked myself

"Let me get this straight, you claim you want to take really good care of me?"

"I don't claim it honey, it's the truth."

"Ok."

"That's more like it." He said, smiling that irritating smile once again,

"Yea, you can take care of me. And the two fetuses that I am growing inside of me, you know, the ones that belong to my husband. My husband that is in fact wanted for murder. He's that one over there." I pointed to Dean, who was making his way across the bar,

Well after that he spit out some words he jumped out of the booth like it was on fire and as he departed, slammed right into Dean. He gave Dean a terrified stare and then fled from the bar as fast as he could,

"What was that all about?" Dean asked as he slid into the booth beside me and handed me my apple juice.

"Nothing." I said, "Junior was just promising me a life of care and comfort. What exactly are you promising me?"

He took a swig of beer and then shot me a smile,  
"A life of constant entertainment."

"Ah, that. Yes well I dunno. In retrospect he was making a pretty good proposition. He even offered to help raise my unborn children."

He laughed,

"Ok, now you're lying. No guy like him would ever say something like that."

"I'm only lying a little bit." I said as I took a sip of my juice, "But I pretty much told him you'd murder him if you saw us together."

I was exaggerating a tad, but who really cares?  
Dean laughed,  
"You got that one right."

"So Sam," I said turning my attention to the youngest Winchester, "How's Keira?"

His face immediately brightened considerably and he had a big smile on my face,  
"She's good. I talked to her earlier and she's in the area so we're going to meet up."

"Awesome." I said as I beamed at him and mentally patted myself on the back for a job well done.

After Dean's second beer he put his bottle down,  
"Well I'm cut off, I've gotta drive."

I shrugged,

"Drink as much as you want. I'll drive. You might as well have fun."

He shook his head,   
"Nah, I'm fine." He said, "Besides, it's not fun if you can't get drunk too."

"Hmm." I said mostly to myself, and then a little louder, "Well guys if you're done, do you want to head back to the motel? This whole being pregnant thing really exhausts the hell out of me."

The guys both slid out of the booth and began walking towards the car, I followed them out.

I slid in the backseat and smiled at Sam who was looking at me with a confused expression on his face,  
"You can sit in the front, at least for this ride."

He shrugged; he wasn't going to argue with being able to actually have legroom.

Later on in the motel I lay, with my face resting against Dean's bare chest and his arms wrapped around me. We lay in a comfortable silence, kissing softly every once in a while,  
"You're really ok with this whole twins thing?" I asked him

"Sure am." He said as he gently placed a kiss on the top of my head

I was falling asleep when one last thought popped into my head,  
"I'm really glad that Sam likes Keira."

He said something back to me but I was too far gone to actually understand what he said, I let my body completely relax and drifted off into sleep. 


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Hey everyone. I'm superbly sorry that it's been so long since I've updated on here. So here is Chapter Three and Four combined. they were both really short so together they should be enough to hold you guys over for a little while :D ... Tell me what you think!

Chapter Three

A couple days had passed since the news of the twins and we were driving along yet another highway in yet another faceless area of the United States of America. I was sitting in the backseat because I felt too guilty to make Sam cram himself back there, plus my legs were short enough that I could stretch my legs across the dark leather of the seat.

"So," I said, directing my attention at the youngest Winchester, "Sam are you super nervous?"

"No, Kaiden. I am not 'super nervous,'"

"Well you should at least buy her some flowers. Buy her roses. Every girl likes roses."

"Jess thought roses were stupid." He said very quietly, mostly to himself and I instantly felt guilty for making him think of Jessica right before he was going to see Keira,

"Yea, I agree. Don't buy her roses. Buy her lilies, they are a nice flower but not as formal."

I knew I was making Sam uncomfortable but I figure he'd been out of dating game for a while so I would give him some girl tips when I felt that he needed them,

"I don't know if we're at that point."

I rolled my eyes,

"Sam, you're not buying her an engagement ring, you're buying her a plant. Think of it that way, Okay?"

He agreed and we stopped at the nearest convenience store. Sam and I stood inside the building looking at the bouquets of flowers.

"This is ridiculous." Sam said as he turned to leave the store.

I grabbed his arm before he made his way to far from me,

"Woah, woah, woah. Come on, just look. It's a nice gesture. Girls love it when guys do thoughtful things for them. So be thoughtful!"

Sam looked at me for a few moments before he spoke again,

"If girls like it when guys are thoughtful and do things like buy them flowers, why are you with Dean?"

"Dean does plenty of thoughtful things for me." I said in a slightly sharp tone

Sam snorted,

"He must be hiding all of those flowers pretty damned well then."

I grabbed a bouquet of lilies out of the flower cooler and handed them to Sam,  
"Here," I said as I walked out of the store, "buy her those, I'll go help Dean."

By helping Dean, I meant that I would go watch him finish filling up the car with gas and then paying for it.

We dropped Sam off at the motel Keira was staying at and headed towards the closest diner.

As I sat stabbing my home fries with my oddly bent fork, I thought popped into my head,

"Dean, you do realize that I'm now 24 years old, you don't need to baby me. What you do need to do is tell me about this hunt."

He sighed and placed his fork down on the table,  
"Kaiden, it's pretty gruesome, are you sure you want to know this?"

I rolled my eyes,  
"Most things about our job are at least a little bit nasty. It's not like I'm a banker; I was raised in this business. And yes, I am very sure that I want to know."

There was no need for me to mention the fact that I already knew most of the details about this hunt both from eavesdropping and looking at Sam's notes when he and Dean were out.

He told me all about the hunt, except he left out a couple of the more gruesome details, although he had no clue I knew what he was doing.

We continued to talk about our choices of action when two people walking hand-in- hand strolled into the diner, one was about 6'5 with broad shoulders and the other around 5'9. They spotted us around the same time I noticed them,

"Hey guys," I said as I motioned them over, "how's it going?"

They slid into the seat on the other side of the booth; Sam smiling like a fool and Keira looking like she'd just rolled out of bed, but still really hot.

"It's going good." Sam replied, "We've just been talking about the hunt…" Sam realized that he was speaking of the hunt that he thought I didn't know much about  
I waved him off, "Dean told me all about the hunt, so finish your sentence."  
"Oh," he said, shooting Dean a glance for conformation, "Keira and I were just talking out the hunt, and strangely enough that's why she's in the area."  
"You mean, you both are here on the same hunt, out of all the ones out there?"

"Kay," Dean said to me, placing his hand on my arm, "I don't think there's much about what Sammy said that needs repeating."

"Shut up!" I said, punching his arm, "I was just surprised."

"So, Keira is going to stick around and help us out with the hunt." Sam said, glossing over the mini argument Dean and I had just had.

"Awesome," I said with a smile, "it'll be nice to have someone around that I can talk to about something other than guns and fighting tactics."

Keira smiled back at me, sweeping her brown hair away from where it was covering her one eye,

"I'm just going to be glad to be around anyone for a period of time. Hunting alone gets mighty lonely."

Dean and I finished our breakfasts and the four of us headed back to the motel and got a room that joined to the one we already had. Dean and I weren't interested in sharing a room with Keira and Sam; it would be just a tad too uncomfortable.

Dean went out to the Impala, he was convinced there was a squeaking sound coming from the motor, he recruited Sam to help him, leaving Keira and myself sitting in the room by ourselves.  
"You have _no_ idea how nice it is not to be the only girl around."

She laughed, "Well I'm just glad I can give you some much needed girl talk. Although," she said, pausing, "don't think this is going to be an every day thing, I'm cool with talking and stuff, but the touchy-feely heart bonding moments is not something I'm interested."

I gave her a grin that expressed my insane gratitude for this girl that I barely even knew.

Man was I looking forward to spending some time with her.

Chapter Four:

I was sitting on my bed in the motel room that Sam and Keira were sharing,

"How you doing in there, Sammy?" I called from where I sat. Sam had come down with the flu, and was puking his guts out a few feet away from me. I wanted to go sit with him in the bathroom - from personal experience I knew that it made me feel a little bit better – but Sam refused to let me in the small titled room,  
"I don't want you or the baby to get this virus." He had said before turning and emptying his stomach in the toilet bowl. The guy was pale and clammy from the bug, but I had no doubt that if he really wanted me out of that room, he could do it without breaking a sweat – well, no more than he was already sweating that is.

I hopped of the bed (well I hopped as much as I could in my fourth month of pregnancy) and made my way to the bathroom as quietly as I could.

Dean and Keira had gone out to finally finish off the spirit of the fifties women that was killing men every year on the night of her murder.

To be completely and totally honest, I was a little torn about the whole situation, I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be in her position. I was lucky enough that my boyfriend – now husband – stuck by my side when I found out I was pregnant. She hadn't even willingly had sex with him and then he came and killed her and her baby. I shuddered at the thought.

Sam had planned on going with them on this hunt, but the flu had hit him so hard and so suddenly that he had no option but to stay back at the motel with little old me. not that I had any choice what so ever in whether or not I was going to participate in the hunt, Dean had made that _very _clear as soon as I had began to show at all.

So anyways, I was walking towards the bathroom to check on Sam without him noticing when I heard someone knocking heavily on the door of our room. I changed my direction and threw open the door and then stood facing a few battered Keira supporting an equally, if not more, battered Dean.

"God!" I said in exasperation, "This always happens!"

I took some weight of Keira by walking Dean over to the nearest bed and helping him lay down,

"This doesn't always happen." He said in a voice that showed his pain and exhaustion, "It's happened twice now. Which, considering what we do, isn't bad at all."

I waved him off and began checking him for any other wounds then the regular bumps and bruises,

"What happened?" I asked Keira

"Well," she said, "everything was going really well, we had found the girl's bones and were about to finish her off when we realized that the salt wasn't in the bag."

I rolled my eyes, it was typical that the issue would be something as ridiculous as forgetting the main equipment.

Keira continued on,  
"So the spirit figured out what we were doing, or at least trying to do, and attacked us."

"Hey," Dean said, "attacked _us?_ Not so much. The bitch attacked _me_."

"Whatever, so while Dean was keeping her busy, I hauled ass and ran to the car, grabbed the salt and sprinted back, threw the salt on the bones and then burned 'em. The end."

Keira walked into the bathroom to get cleaned up and check on Sam, leaving Dean and myself alone in the room. I hadn't found anything worse than what I suspected to be a sprained wrist, which I knew could be a bitch, but I was grateful it wasn't a fractured spine.

I laid alongside his body and planted a kiss on his jaw bone where a seriously black bruise was forming,

"I'm glad you're okay." I said as I checked Dean over once again,

"'Keeping her busy.'" He said with a snort, "I wasn't keeping her busy; the crazy chick kicked my ass in ways I'm just not comfortable with."

I kissed him again before walking into the bathroom, wetting a washcloth and returning to his side. I gently began to wipe the blood that had dried on his face off his skin.

Dean had fallen asleep and the rumble of voices that had been coming from the bathroom had ceased.

I gently shook Dean's shoulder until he groaned and groggily asked,  
"What do you want?"

"Let's get you in your own bed." I simply replied before helping him up, across the floor and through the door that joined our two rooms.

After Dean was out cold, I returned to the other room to shake Keira awake. She and a completely exhausted and still clammy Sam stood up and headed to bed, while I returned to my room.

I sat in bed for a while, reading "28 Stories of AIDS in Africa" until I became ridiculously thirsty. I got up off the bed and headed towards the sink. I was grateful that the motels we stayed in came with fully equipped kitchens.

I was filling my glass with water when a blinding pain shot through my abdomen. I groaned in agony as my glass slipped through my fingers and smashed onto the linoleum flooring that covered the small kitchen area. I slowly sank to the floor, clutching my stomach.

Dean woke with a jolt and was beside me before I had even realized he had gotten of the bed,

"Kay?" he said in a panicked voice, "Kaiden, what's wrong?" he pulled me towards him and tried to get me to look at him, but I couldn't, the pain was something unbearable.

The tears ran down my face, I worked up the strength to face him,

"God." I groaned, "It's killing me."

"What?" he asked his eyes searching mine frantically, "What hurts? You could point to what's happening."

The pain had dulled enough for me to start standing up, Dean noticed what I was doing and helped me the rest of the way up and over to the bed,

"Let me get you another glass of water." He said as dodged the glass that was sprinkled in chunks around the sink,

"The pregnancy book says that lower abdomen pain is normal at this stage in the fetal development. But Jesus, this hurts like something awful."

I heard someone knocking gently on the door joining ours with Sam and Keira's room,

Dean walked over to open the door and Sam stood in front of him wearing only his boxers,

"Dean," he said in a voice that told me he was startled out of sleep, "what's going on? I heard glass breaking."

"Its fine Sammy," I said from where I was sitting, "I think my insides are exploding with a vengeance."

"You need to go to a doctor. You could be having a miscarriage." He said, looking concerned.

"Sam," I said, waving him off, "Thanks for your help. But I'm feeling much better, I just need some sleep."

"Fine. But you're going to the doctor's first thing in the morning. Got it?"

I nodded my head, and Sam went back into his room, shutting the door behind him. I climbed under the covers and let Dean wrap his arms fully around me, he was worried, and I knew that holding me against him helped him feel better, than it was fine with me. Although, having two full grown men worrying over me was kind of funny.


	4. Chapter 4

"See?" I said to Dean as we headed out to the Impala, a week after my glass smashing incident, "I told you everything was fine, the doctor said that abdominal cramping is perfectly normal in this stage of pregnancy, and it can get pretty painful."

Dean nodded his head and everything was silent until,

"Well actually, the doctor said that it was normal but at the same time if you're in the same amount of paint that you were in last night that you should contact a medical professional immediately."

I stopped walking, looked back and then looked at Dean,  
"Dean, I hate it when your brother comes to my doctor's appointments."

"Hey!" Sam said indignantly, "It's not like I was dying to come. You guys just happened to be in the same general area that I needed you to pick me up from. And besides, I was just sitting in the waiting room, it's not my fault the doctor told you guys that stuff right in front of me."

We had gotten into the car at that point and I turned around and faced him where he was sitting in the backseat,

"Which reminds me, where did you have to for like, five days?"

He shrugged and avoided my eyes,  
"Just had a couple of things to take care of."

I narrowed my eyes at him and pursed my lips,  
"I sure do hate it when you two hide things from me." I said simply and then turned around in my seat and gazed at the trees as they flicked by.

We returned to the motel near half an hour after we had left the doctor's office to a Keira who was looking mighty displeased,  
"What the hell is this Sam?" she demanded, holding up a piece of paper that I could see had Sam's handwriting on it, "You don't just disappear for _days_, only leaving a note that says '_Keira, I have some things I need to take care of. Be safe. –Sam.'_ You didn't give me any hint of where you could be. Do you know what this letter is like? It's like when people get abducted and the kidnapper makes them write a letter so that people won't look for them while the crazed maniac gets away and leaves the victims body in a river."

Her face was flushed and her eyes were wild, the Keira I knew was generally cool, calm and collected, I had never seen her react to anything in this way. She must have really cared about Sam.

"Babe-" he started,

"Oh no!" she said loudly over whatever he was about to say, "you don't get to disappear and then come back and start calling me names like kitten and cutie and babe. It just doesn't work like that Winchester!"

_Ookay,_ I thought to myself as I turned to Dean and motioned in the direction of our room

"What?" he asked

"I think we should give them some privacy to work things out."

"Why? Things are just getting good."

I rolled my eyes, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him out of the room, closing the door behind me and muffling Keira and Sam's voices.

It was a cold day; a light dusting of snow littered the ground around us as I led Dean over to the small children's playground and sat down on a bench.

"It's freezing." He complained, "If you don't want me to watch their fight, we should at least go inside our room. I don't want you to get too cold."

I smiled up at him,

"We'll go back inside in a minute. I just love the smell of winter, just let me sit here and breathe it in for a while. If you want you can go back to our room."

He wrapped his arms around me, tucked my head under his chin, and rested his hand over my rounded belly,  
"Nah, that's okay. I'd rather stay with you and watch you enjoying sitting out here freezing off your extremities."

I laughed and then we sat in silence for many minutes before I heard I door swing open, feet stomping and then Sam yelling,  
"Keira, this is ridiculous! Just come back and we can talk this over."

I had turned around to see what was going on and saw her whip around to face Sam,

"No Sam, we can just talk this out. When I'm in a relationship – which by the way is what _you_ decided we are in – I'm honest. I don't hide things from the other person and I hate, _hate_ it when people hide things form me."

Her teeth were clenched and she was breathing hard in anger, her breath visible in the cold winter air.

Sam walked over to her and rested his hand on her arm, when she ripped it out from under his touch his eyes darkened and he said something quietly to her that I couldn't hear. She glared up at him,  
"Wow," Dean murmured into my ear, "if looks could kill, Sammy would be good as dead."

Keira marched into the motel room, slamming the door behind her.

Close to forty-five minutes later, Sam was sitting with Dean and myself in our room looking miserable,  
"She's locked herself in the bathroom and won't let me in." he said in a tired voice, "Kaiden, could you go talk to her? Maybe she'll listen to you."

"I don't know what you want me to say to her." I replied, "I hate it when Dean hides things from me, but then again Dean has never disappeared for days at a time."

"One point: Dean." Dean said from across the room where he was sitting on the bed.

I shrugged on my jacket,

"Yea Sam. I'll go talk to her." I said with an eye roll and I walked out the room.

I let myself into Sam and Keira's room and strode across to the bathroom, knocking on the door,

"Go away." I heard her say through the flimsy wooden door.

"Keira, come on. Just let me in, Sam's in the other room. It's just me I promise."

"No seriously, leave me alone."

I sighed,  
"Listen Keira, I may be pregnant, but I'm tough, and this door isn't thick. Either you let me in or I'll kick down the door and not even say sorry when you get covered in chucks of wood."

I heard the click of the cheap bathroom lock and opened the door. Keira was sitting on the edge of the bathtub, her eyes red from crying.

"This is ridiculous." She said as she fisted the tears from under her eyes

I sighed and sat down on the tub ledge beside her,

"I know how you feel. If I wasn't so in love with Dean, I would have murdered him by now. It's just the reaction that the Winchester men invoke from the women they are with."

I paused for a moment as I thought before I spoke again,  
"What did you mean when you said that Sam was the one who decided you guys were in a relationship?"

"Ever since-" she stopped talking and sighed, "Ever since Eric killed himself, I've tried not to get attached to people."

"And so by admitting you're in a relationship with Sam puts you in a place where you're vulnerable?"

She shrugged,

"Pretty much."

"Believe me," I said, "Trying to protect yourself by not getting close just ends up hurting you more than if you had just put yourself out there."

Keira was quiet for many moments before speaking again,

"Wow that was quite the heart to heart moment, eh?"

I laughed and shoved her a bit,

"Shut up! The point is you should go make nice with Sam, but just not when I'm in the room."

She wiggled her eyebrows at me and walked out the bathroom door, then poked her head back in the room,

"Thanks, by the way."

"Yea, yea, yea." I said, "Do the warm fuzzy thing with Sam."

She smiled at me and then disappeared from my sight.

_Dean would be so disgusted at this chick flick moment_, I thought to myself as I stood up from where I was sitting and went to just lay in my husband's arms.


	5. Chapter 5

"Happy Birthday Kaiden." Dean said as he kissed my forehead and roused me from the deep sleep I had been in, "Now get up."

"Nooo." I groaned and rolled over onto my side, facing away from Dean, "I hate birthdays. It's just another day passing until you die."

Dean was silent for a moment,

"Well that's morbid." He said, and then, "Hey, you didn't think birthdays were so bad when it was mine. I recall balloons and a cake and a promise of sexual favors…"

"Stop making things up, there were no sexual favors, not even a promise of one, now get your mind out of the gutter and let me go back to sleep."

"Nope." He said as he pulled the blankets off of me, "I'm not letting you go back to sleep. I am forcing you into celebrating another year of wisdom and excitement."

"Hey. I'm growing your child here. That takes some energy. So you should just let me sleep."

"Fine," he said, leaning back against the headboard of the bed, "it's really your loss. But you're right, I'm sure you're really tired, you're only a wee little girl after all."

I eyed him suspiciously,

"Are you trying that reverse psychology crap on me?"

"No, of course not. I'm just agreeing with what you said. You're just a woman, I couldn't expect you to overcome your exhaustion and get out of bed."

I sat up and glared at him,

"This is a lose/lose situation for me." I said, "If I get up to prove you wrong about that idiotic comment you just made, then you win. And if I stay in bed you'll be able to say that you were right all along, and once again, I lose."

"Which is why you love me; my cunning mind."

"Either that or your hot body. I'm thinking it's the body though. Because I used to think you were a moron."

I slid off the bed and my feet hit the green carpet that was worn almost to the cement in some places. I turned on my heel and looked at him, my hands on my hips.

"See? I'm up; now let's get this show on the road."

He smiled as he got up off the bed and walked over to me,

"You can be as impatient as you want, but you're not going back to bed, well at least not until later."

He raised his eyebrows at me in a way that I couldn't help but laugh at,

"Okay wise guy, what's the plan for today?"

"Well-" he said before he was cut off by the ringing of his cell phone that was shoved into his pocket. He glanced at the number on the screen before pushing it back into his jeans,

"Who was it?" I asked

He shrugged as he grabbed his jacket,

"Wrong number. Now get dressed, we're going out."  
"You think you can shut me up by saying it was a wrong number?" I asked, "You didn't even answer it. So how could you possibly know who the person was looking for?"

"I dunno." He said as he shrugged and tossed my jacket in my direction, "I guess I can just predict the future. It's a truly amazing talent. I'm predicting right now that if you don't hurry up and get dressed I'm going to drag you outside as you are."

"Psh. You're underestimating me pal, I could kick your ass up and down."

Dean closed the distance between us in two strides and picked me up off the floor, spinning me around.

"Okay. Okay!" I said through my laughter and he placed me back on the ground, "I get it, you're strong and manly. You win!"

He gave me a pleased smile and handed me a pile of clothes,

"Damn right I'm strong and manly. Now go get dressed, you can complain about what a horrible husband and person I am when we're in the car."  
"Promise?" I asked

"Would I ever lie to you about such an important matter as you getting to whine about me?"

I laughed and walked into the bathroom to get changed.

"You know Dean," I said fifteen minutes as I sat in the front seat of the Impala, "I don't exactly enjoy not being able to see. So it's going to suck some of the fun out of your plans."

"Come on. Where's your sense of adventure? Doesn't a blind fold just want to make you beg me tell what we're going to do?"

"No." is said simply, "What it makes me want to do is punch you in the solar plexus."

"Well I guess it is good for me that you can't see." He said with a chuckle, "But I promise you, this afternoon is not going to be one you'll be forgetting any time soon."

Well he was certainly right about that. He first took me to a movie which was more gruesome than I could handle, and then took me to a nice restaurant, where there was nothing on the menu that appealed to either of us.

Dean was stressed out after the afternoon, I could see that clearly. As we were driving home the clouds had began to gather and soon rain was pouring down from the sky like the heavens had just opened up entirely. Moments later, the car gave out a sputter and rolled to a halt.

"You have got to be kidding me!!" Dean yelled as he slammed his fist into the steering wheel, "What is this? Am I being punished for something?"

I grabbed his hand before he punched the steering wheel again and held it in my hands,

"This is nothing we can't handle." I said, gently kissing his red knuckles "Let's just get the car fixed and get back to the motel."

He smiled at me and kissed me softly, his lips gently caressing mine  
"What would I do without you?" he asked

I pretending to think for a moment before answering,  
"Probably beat your steering wheel to a bloody pulp."

He laughed as he popped the hood and slid out of the car. I hopped out just after him

The rain pelted down with a vengeance,

"What are you doing out here?" he asked

"What does it look like? I'm helping fix whatever is wrong."

He shook his head as he stopped tinkering under the hood,  
"You should be in the car, I don't want you getting sick."

I rolled my eyes at him as I peaked to see what was going on underneath the hood of the car,  
"I'm pretty sure I've survived a couple drops of rain before."

He poked around for a couple of minutes before he stated his diagnosis,  
"It's the fan belt." He said simply

"Yeaa," I said, "I haven't the slightest idea what that means."

"It doesn't really matter. We just need a new one before we can drive the car again."

"Well the upside is that we aren't that far away from the motel."

Dean locked up the car and we started walking, of course when I said that we weren't that far away, I had no idea that we were really nearly an hour's walk away.

We arrived back at the motel soaked to the bone and shivering from head to toe.

"I love the rain." I said as he opened the door to our room and I walked in

"Do you know what I don't love?" he asked, "I love not having hypothermia."

"Stop being such a baby," I said with a laugh, "there's no way you have hypothermia."

"I don't know. I might be on my death bed and you just called me a baby."

I closed the gap between us and kissed him hard, when I pulled away quite a bit later, breathing hard, I smiled at him,  
"Feeling better?"

"I think you must have cured me doc. What's your secret?"

"My secret to curing people with no actual illnesses? I'll never tell."

He kissed me again and neither of us had any intention of stopping, when there was a knock on the door.  
"Ignore it." Dean said as he kissed his way down my neck,

As much as I wanted to just pretend we didn't hear it, I knew we couldn't

"Sorry babe," I said, "you better get that."

He grumbled and walked over to the door, swinging it open.

Standing in the doorway was a tall, beautiful brunette girl with a bundle of blankets in her arms.

"Rachel?" he said in a completely shocked voice,

"Hi Dean." She said with a smile, "This is Brady. Your son."


End file.
